Many networking protocols utilize a set of parallel lanes to communicate serial data at a higher rate of speed versus single lane configurations. In particular, a network link may be established to include a number of lanes. The number of lanes may be referred to as the “width” of the link. Changing the link width while the link is active typically disrupts network traffic. More specifically, during operation, if the link width is changed, the link must either be taken down to change the width or a significant interruption in network traffic results from reconfiguring the link width.